Chinese manufacturing sector shrinks
Good morning, and welcome to our final blog for 2014 on the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and the business world.
China’s manufacturing sector shrank for the first time in seven months in December according to the HSBC/Markit manufacturing PMI report. In the latest sign of a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy, the headline index fell to 49.6 from 50 in November, where anything below 50 signals contraction.
The news drove Brent crude for February delivery down 79 cents at $57.11, after earlier dropping as low as low as $56.87.
Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said: “Clearly, demand concerns are one of the issues for the oil market”.
Updated
